● they offer limited potential to pay off debts (because they are tiny compared with typical national indebtedness);
● they may be used to ‘smear’ indigenous environmental groups’ efforts, i.e. opponents of environmental protection spread rumours of foreign interference to divert attention from other issues;
● there may be difficulties in adopting them in some countries due to different accounting and regulatory systems;
● there is no guarantee of ongoing protection or care;
● they may be seen as an erosion of a developing country’s sovereignty;
● if operated through NGOs, swaps may not assist or train local agencies;
● they do little to change commercial forces that damage the environment;
● they have so far been applied to a limited range of activities, mainly park and reserve establishment and maintenance;
● the main beneficiaries, it has been argued, are the debt-seller banks (Mahony, 1992).